The curtain is about to go up on Italy's biggest musical event of the year, the Sanremo songfest, amid furious polemics from gay rights groups and consumer associations.
Broadcast by state network RAI and watched avidly by millions in Italy and the rest of the world, the 59th edition of the glitzy festival begins on Tuesday and ends five evenings later after more than 15 hours of live TV.
As always, organisers have recruited a handful of big names to boost the show's international glamour.
Jim Carrey, Kevin Spacey, Annie Lennox, Burt Bacharach and Hugh Heffner are due to appear around the main event, which this year sees 15 famous names and eight lesser-known artists compete for the title of best song.
One of the more famous artists, 36-year-old Milan singer-songwriter Povia, has caused uproar among gay groups with his entry, Luca Was Gay, a song apparently about 'converting' gays to heterosexuality.
Povia has previously come under fire over a magazine interview in which he declared that ''people aren't gay, they become gay on the basis of who they spend time with''.
''This song represents a wound for all gay people who are fighting against homophobia and ignorance in Italy,'' Arcigay President Aurelio Mancuso reiterated Monday .
''You don't change sexual orientation like a pair of shoes, it's rooted in our nature,'' he said, adding that five major gay right's groups will stage a protest in the city on Saturday.
This year's artistic director and presenter Paolo Bonolis defended the song, saying that it did not ''take sides'' but simply ''told a story''.
Povia meanwhile denied being homophobic and said he didn't ''give a damn'' about the gay rights groups' protest.
Other observers such as politician Luca Volonte' of the Catholic UDC party have called Arcigay's efforts to pull the song discriminatory, pointing out that last year ½ûÂþÌìÌà pop singer Anna Tatangelo competed with a song entitled My Friend, written for a gay friend about the difficulty he faces in Italy because of his sexuality.
Meanwhile another row is raging over Bonolis' pay packet for the festival, said to be in the range of a million euros, as well as that of another guest, Oscar-winning film maker and comic-actor Roberto Benigni.
Consumer rights association Codacons has asked San Remo public prosecutors to seize the two artists' contracts, saying it had a duty to ascertain whether licence payers' money was being used ''inappropriately''.
CRUNCH TIME FOR EVENT'S FUTURE.
The salary row has been fuelled by the fact that the festival, which in the past has 'made' songs and launched careers, has been hit in recent years by a steady decline in ratings.
RAI chiefs will be watching viewing figures closely to see whether its big investment is actually paying dividends.
RAI Uno director Fabrizio Del Noce said this year's festival was costing half a million euros less than last year but admitted that it was crunch time for the event's future on the network.
''It's a question of life or death. Either there are results, or it's curtains,'' he said.
In an effort to boost audience figures for Tuesday's curtain raiser, organisers have secured reclusive ½ûÂþÌìÌà singing legend Mina to open the show.
Bonolis said the famously retiring star had agreed to ''help'' the festival, although she will not appear live.
Instead, she will appear in a video singing a special arrangement of the Nessun Dorma aria from Puccini's Turandot.
Mina, 68, is reckoned by many the finest female pop singer Italy has produced and Louis Armstrong once called her ''the greatest white singer in the world''.
She last appeared on TV in 1974 and in public in 1978.
A charity founded by the U2 vocalist Bono is set to inject an extra dose of Hollywood glamour into the festival.
Celebrities including Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Claudia Schiffer, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz will appear in short video appeals on behalf of One, a campaign and advocacy organisation that fights poverty worldwide.
